Thursday, October 25, 2007

Severely Restricted Diet Linked To Physical Fitness Into Old Age

Severely Restricted Diet Linked To Physical Fitness Into Old Age - ScienceDaily2007.10.26"Severely restricting calories leads to a longer life, scientists have proved. New research now has shown for the first time that such a diet also can maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the seemingly inevitable progression to physical disability and loss of independence...The study, using a rat model of life-time caloric restriction, showed that the diet reduces the amount of visceral fat, which expresses inflammatory factors that in humans cause chronic disease and a decline in physical performance and vitality across the lifespan..."This is the first study to report that caloric restriction reduced production in visceral fat of the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and enhanced performance on overall physical function assessments," said Tongjian You...animals on the restricted calorie diet had significantly higher physical performance scores than animals fed a normal diet. They also had less fat, a lower fat-to-lean ratio, and lower adipose tissue secretion of IL-6 and circulating levels of C-reactive protein... (for humans it) would mean surviving on 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day (woman/man)..."It's very difficult for people to maintain that type of diet for short periods of time, and it would be nearly impossible over a lifetime, while staying healthy. Starting on a diet like that in the senior years would be harmful."..."